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Vacant buildings aren't exactly commonplace on the blocks neighboring Madison Square Park, but the more than 150-year old building at 242 Fifth Avenue has sat unused for more than ten years. The old building, which was given a Queen Anne style makeover in 1885, was purchased in the last year by a group of men who refer to themselves as the Pan Brothers. Alas, they are not magicians or Broadway barons but real estate investors, who plan to fix the property up into four residential units and open up its long shuttered storefront, provided their plan squeaks by the Landmarks Preservation Commission on April 23.

Community Board 5 is in their corner: the plans for the alteration sailed through the board's landmarks committee last night, despite members' crankiness about receiving the renderings late. (That's the building at right; we're waiting on renderings.) If all goes well, the roughly 12,000-square-foot building will have its roof raised eight feet to about 80 feet in total, including a new addition built on top—presumably somebody's prime penthouse digs—that the team promises won't be visible from the street. Except for a 10-foot stretch of West 28th Street, that is. "If you were walking on West 28th Street, there would be like a two-second interval where you would see it," said Frank Angelino, presenting with the group.

The building was originally built as housing, but was converted to stores and lofts in 1885, hosting an antique furniture store and a tailor, among others, but the owners would not say what kind of retail space the ground floor would be most appropriate for in 2014, when they hope to have the renovation completed. The building's large, uniquely windowed facade, the upper portion of which is largely intact to its 1885 form, will remain the same except on the ground floor storefront, which the ownership team plans to alter while keeping as "historic" as possible.

Ian Bruce Eichner, a developer whose high-profile problems became symbols of the last two real-estate busts, is in final stages of a deal to buy a condominium development site near Manhattan's Flatiron Building.

Eliot Brown/The Wall Street Journal
Site of the potential condo tower

Looking to mount his latest comeback, Mr. Eichner is preparing to spend more than $100 million to buy the site as well as air rights that would enable him to build a nearly 800-foot tower with more than 90 units, according to real-estate executives briefed on the project. The slim, glass condo tower he is planning, designed by architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, would be the tallest building between the Empire State Building and downtown.

Similar to many developers moving ahead with new condo projects recently, Mr. Eichner is targeting the upper end of the market, real-estate executives said. Similar to others, he has been emboldened by the high prices that are being fetched these days—more than $3,000 a square foot in Greenwich Village and more than $5,000 a square foot for some units by Central Park.

A spokesman for Mr. Eichner declined to comment. He is hoping to complete the purchase of the site and air rights in the next few weeks, the executives said. The site is owned by One Hand Realty LLC, while the air rights are from a variety of properties nearby. One Hand couldn't be reached for comment.

The tower, on East 22nd St. between Broadway and Park Avenue South, would be only 50 feet wide at the base but would expand like a slender champagne flute and be wider at the top, a rendering reviewed by The Wall Street Journal shows.

A slim, charismatic former Brooklyn, N.Y., prosecutor, Mr. Eichner switched to real estate and made it into the big time in the early 1990s with the development of CitySpire and an office tower at 1540 Broadway. Both projects ran into financial problems during the commercial real-estate crash that hit the U.S. soon after they were completed, and he surrendered them to creditors.

Mr. Eichner made a comeback with a number of successful projects and embarked on his largest-ever project in the recent boom: the giant Cosmopolitan Resort Casino hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip. That project, which eventually cost nearly $4 billion, ran into trouble when it was about one-third completed. It eventually was taken over by its lender, Deutsche Bank AG.

In recent years, he has been looking to start his third act as a developer. In New York, he tried unsuccessfully to buy the One Madison Park condo tower, a project overlooking Madison Square Park, which stalled in the downturn.

He also is trying to build in Harlem, N.Y. Earlier this spring, he reached a deal with Vornado Realty Trust to pay $65 million for a large site on East 125th St., according to real-estate executives familiar with the deal. He plans a large apartment project on the site, where Vornado wanted to build an office tower.

To move forward on the condo tower, Mr. Eichner would need to line up financing and close on the purchase of the site.

21 West 20th Street

We’re checking up on Flatiron project 21 West 20th Street, which let loose with several new renderings.
Formerly an Extell development site (does that make it an Extell ex?), the 15-story building by Gale International will have twelve full-floor homes and measure 36,897 square feet, according to the developer’s site. The architect is Beyer Blinder Belle, and MR Architecture + Decor is doing the interiors.
The facade will be “a modern balance of blackened stainless steel, glass and stone,” and the residences will include four penthouses with private terraces. The three floor-though penthouses, starting on the tenth level, will have floor-to-ceiling southern exposures, while the crowning fourth penthouse will be a duplex with 360-degree views.
Gale bought the site in January for $9.75 million from Extell, The New York Times reported. The lot came with permits from the Landmark Preservation Commission and designs from Beyer Blinder Belle for a 15-story, 12-unit condo building.
The project is slated for completion in the first quarter of 2015. You can visit the so-minimal-it’s-just-a-logo teaser sitehere. Renderings from Gale International below — and is that a hot tub on the private terrace?Renderings: Gale International

A through-block parking lot at 7 West 21st Street in the Ladies Mile Historic District of Flatiron may soon by home to a Morris Adjmi-designed residential building. The design calls for what looks like two separate buildings, one at 21st Street and one at 22nd, connected by the first floor (reserved for retail space) and the lobby above it. On top of those floors would be a shared courtyard. The lower portions of the facades will be made of stone, while the mid and upper portions will be glazed terracotta. The sidewalls will be glazed brick. 20 percent of the units will be reserved for affordable housing. The street wall facades will require setback waivers from the city, and also approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the latter of which Adjmi attempted to gain yesterday afternoon.

[The West 22nd Street facade]

The Landmarks Commissioners, for their part, didn't hate the designs, but neither were they blown away. The fact that the facades lack ornamentation, uncharacteristic of the Ladies Mile Historic District, was a sticking point for the preservationists, but not for the commissioners—commissioner Joan Gerner said that the design "speaks to the district in a modern language." The commissioners did, however, take issue with the base of the facade, calling it "horizontally arranged," "too soft," and "squat." Commissioner Michael Goldblum remarked that other buildings in the area have "much more emphatic, much more vertical designs." Adjmi and co. will have to address those concerns before re-presenting to the Commission.

Rendering courtesy of Smith-Miller and Hawkinson Architects
A rendering depicts new construction, after Panasia Estate’s proposed demolition of 51 and 53 W. 19 St.

| A developer’s plan to demolish two landmarked 19th-century buildings on West 19th Street was met with stiff resistance by the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), following similar opposition by community leaders and preservationists.

Although no official vote was taken at the April 1 hearing, the commissioners were nearly unanimous in their belief that Panasia Estate, the owner of 51 and 53 West 19th Street (between Fifth and Sixth Avenues), should focus on restoring the buildings — which lie within the Ladies’ Mile Historic District — rather than replacing them with a proposed 14-story residential building.

“These are contributing buildings in a historic district, and it’s the obligation of this commission to protect those buildings,” said LPC Chair Robert Tierney, during comments after a presentation by Panasia’s architect, the firm Smith-Miller and Hawkinson. “And to allow them to be lost would, I believe, diminish the district.”

The ornate five-story buildings were both constructed for residential use in 1854, and were converted to commercial and manufacturing use in 1920s, housing the kinds of businesses — such as milliners, embroiderers and furriers — that came to characterize the district. They are mostly vacant at this point, although there is currently a restaurant located on the ground floor of No. 53.

Both buildings were included in the Ladies’ Mile Historic District — which spans from West 16th Street to West 24thStreet, roughly between Broadway and Sixth Avenue — when it was designated by the LPC in 1989.

Henry Smith-Miller, the lead architect who pitched the demolition and replacement plan, had attempted to convince the commission that his sleek and slim 14-story building would simply look better than the current buildings, both of whose facades are relatively dilapidated at this point.

Photo by Sam Spokony
Just leave them alone? The LPC hasn’t seen “anything to show that these buildings are
not structurally sound, and that they can’t be repaired and creatively reused.”

“We think this will bring some life and vitality back to the street,” said Smith-Miller, adding that he believed the replacement would do more for the quality of the district than a “simple restoration.”

Tierney, backed by all but one of the nine other commissioners, later responded specifically to that aspect of the pitch by stating that he believed both buildings were still adequately suited for restoration.

“I just haven’t seen anything to show that these buildings are not structurally sound, and that they can’t be repaired and creatively reused,” the LPC chair said.

The commission’s comments were good news for local preservation advocates who attended the April 1 hearing and, before those comments, gave testimony against the proposed demolition.

Layla Law-Gisiko, chair of Community Board 5’s Landmarks Committee, had already passed a March resolution (also approved by the full board) which strongly called on LPC to deny the demolition application. The resolution was, in fact, so strong on that point that it notably did not even include an evaluation of the proposed replacement building.

“We’re urging the applicant to come to his senses and develop a plan to restore, rather than destroy these two buildings,” said Law-Gisiko at the hearing, adding that she “looks forward to working with the applicant on a reasonable restoration plan.

And along with opposing the developer’s plan, Barbara Zay of the Historic Districts Council advocacy group declared in her testimony that allowing the demolition would set a “dangerous” precedent for similarly aging buildings in other historic districts around the city.

Susan Finley, a director of the Flatiron Alliance, agreed, although she worded her concerns a bit more explicitly.

“If you allow this to happen,” Finley told the LPC, “you are signaling to developers that money trumps history. And the next thing we know, developers are going to be looking for ways to take apart this historic district. So please, on behalf of all of us who live and work there, don’t allow it to happen.

She also directed some of the more scathing elements of her testimony towards Smith-Miller and his architectural team.

“19th Street doesn’t need you to bring them back to life,” said Finley. “19th Street is alive and well, as is the entire neighborhood, and that’s thanks to the integrity of the Ladies’ Mile Historic District.”

Another powerful community voice during the hearing was that of Jack Taylor, a longtime preservationist whose advocacy group, the Drive to Protect the Ladies’ Mile District, was instrumental in securing the district’s designation.

Quoting a statement made by the celebrated structural engineer Robert Silman when he was honored by the Historic Districts Council in 2006, Taylor told the commission, “ ‘Almost no building today is beyond salvaging. There are ways of working around any damage, of reusing any building that seems hopeless, as there’s sufficient will and community support.’ ”

Referring to 51 and 53 West 19th Street, Taylor added a closing thought of his own to that quote.

“The community support is here, commissioners,” he said. “The will is up to you and the applicant.”

At this point, it’s unclear whether Panasia will now tell their architect to reverse course and make plans to restore the two buildings, given the extreme likelihood of the LPC eventually voting to deny the demolition application.

Interest rates are probably most relevant in suburban places in middle America. In NYC, with cash buyers and coop rules requiring significant down payments and cash reserves, interest rates likely don't have a huge impact.

And, in historical terms, NYC is not really building that much housing. The current construction levels are not really adequate for population growth.

Has nothing to do with credit for the actual purchase. The Fed rate policy is responsible for the record stock market and corporate earnings domestically and to an extent worldwide. International buyers are driving the high end in Manhattan real estate but they alone aren't propping up this market. As soon as the Fed starts to tighten you'll see a pullback in all sectors

The Fed rate policy is responsible for the record stock market and corporate earnings domestically and to an extent worldwide.

I don't think so. The Fed rate policy isn't relevant to cash buyers, and the relative health of equities aren't directly tied to low interest rates (if this were true they would never raise interest rates, ever).

Originally Posted by GordonGecko

International buyers are driving the high end in Manhattan real estate but they alone aren't propping up this market. As soon as the Fed starts to tighten you'll see a pullback in all sectors

They already tightened, and there's no pullback. And the overall market isn't even back where it was six years ago, despite a much healthier economy, so there's plenty of room for price appreciation.